We tested the AF-S NIKKOR 200–500 mm 1:5,6E ED VR on a trip to the Great Bear Rainforest in Canada for shooting bears, eagles, whales, wolves and other wildlife. The Great Bear Rainforest is a great place for testing lenses and cameras: frequently really wet and low light conditions and challenging animals.

The Nikon AF-S FX NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED is known for its image quality. But this is not the topic of this short review, we focus on some practical considerations.

What we found:

Fast and accurate autofocus (but not comparable with the professionell prime lenses from Nikon).

Effective image stabilisation.

Combination of VR, size and weight allows hand holding even at low-light conditions.

The plastic lens hood is PITA! When using the Nikkor with a ThinkTank Hydrophobia rain cover the hood can snap out of the bayonet, resulting in missing shots. A solution is fixing the lens hood with duct tape!

Sometimes a wider zoom range is missed, especially down to 100 mm. A 2nd camera with an attached AF-S NIKKOR 70–200 MM 1:4G ED VR (or similar) should be ready.

The foot of the tripod-collar is not Arca-Style, so attaching an extra lens plate makes sense (e.g. the LP-62 from Kirk). But the foot has only one threaded insert attachment point, this might cause twisting of the lens plate.

The tested lens is affected by the autofocus issue and needs a firmware upgrade by Nikon. This issue caused some missing shots!

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